Pluralsight acquires A Cloud Guru to accelerate cloud skill development

Pluralsight announced that it has closed on its acquisition of A Cloud Guru (ACG). Pluralsight had previously announced in June that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ACG following Vista Equity Partners’ recent acquisition of Pluralsight.

“For businesses around the world and across all industries, cloud transformation is one of their most important technology initiatives and closing the growing cloud skills gap is their single biggest challenge in meeting it. As the leader in technology skill development for large enterprises around the world, we are determined to be their trusted partner to solve it,” said Aaron Skonnard, co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight. “With our acquisition of A Cloud Guru, we are now positioned to deliver the most comprehensive solution for driving cloud maturity at scale through an all-in-one solution for cloud skill development.”

Cloud computing continues to experience massive growth for large enterprises around the world, increasing the need for cloud skill development to keep pace. In fact, research shows that the vast majority of IT decision makers believe that the shortage of cloud skills is their number one challenge.

By combining the power of A Cloud Guru’s leading certification courses, hands-on labs and sandboxes, exams and quizzes with the existing library of Pluralsight Skills cloud courses and hands-on learning experiences, the joint organization will now be better positioned to meet the market demand for cloud skill development.

“Technology alone won’t transform businesses, a continuous flow of new skills, creativity and innovation will. Since its inception, A Cloud Guru has empowered enterprises to unleash the cloud’s full potential by aligning talent, technology and vision,” said Sam Kroonenburg, Co-founder and CEO of A Cloud Guru. “Together Pluralsight and ACG will chart an accelerated path to success at every stage of cloud maturity while driving cloud adoption and innovation within corporations.”

William Blair & Company, LLC acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Pluralsight and Vista in the transaction, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP serving as legal counsel. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor to A Cloud Guru and Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel.